


The Life of A Doll

by Tumbalalaika



Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, I'm soo original, Oh look another Sakura joins the Akatsuki!, Or just Sakura/awesomeness, Possible Dei-Saku, Sakura-centric, pairings undetermined, we'll see..
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-28
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-15 04:40:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3433907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tumbalalaika/pseuds/Tumbalalaika
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Instead of defeating Sasori in an epic showdown of flying fists and poisonous darts, Sakura was defeated and knocked out. When she wakes, she finds herself without a sense of touch and with a completely modified body. She also finds herself being offered a position in the Akatsuki. She really shouldn't feel so tempted...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Waking up

**Author's Note:**

> So the Gaara Rescue arc was my favourite arc in the whole series. Mostly because we got to see Sakura kick s-rank missing nin ass. But I was kind of disappointed that after that one battle, it seems Sakura just stopped being part of battles for pretty much the rest of the series.. But whatever. I wanted to write a Sakura Joins The Akatsuki story, but I wanted it to be creative, and this is what I came up with...
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. I do, however own a Naruto plushie. And a Naruto t-shirt. And a Naruto bedspread. And a Naruto- you know what? I'll stop here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually posted this first chapter a loooong time ago (last year) when I was still an ickle 14 year old with little self confidence and no knowledge on how to write a story. But I've done my google-ing and I've been alternating between writing this and my other Hinata missing nin fic. I wasn't going to start posting this until I finished with my other projects, but recently ideas for Naruto fanfics have just been spilling out of me so I thought I'd get a move on with these two first.

 

Sakura woke up with a loud gasp.. gasp being an attempt to fill her lungs with air..  Strangely the whole ‘fill lungs with air’ thing wasn’t really working for her. She sucked some air into her mouth but that was it.  No lung expansion, no oxygen relief, no nothing. She had a strange second where she was acutely aware of her terrifying disability to breath before her vision filled with black and she passed out.

 

The second time she woke, the same thing happened.

 

The third time she heard a distant “Tch” before her consciousness cut off.  

 

The fourth time she woke, it was forceful. One second she was dead to the world, the next she was sitting up, her eyes opened wide, her mind in full processing mode. It took a few seconds for her to process all her memories. The journey to Suna. Kankuro's heavily flushed cheeks. A dark cave. Gaara's lifeless body. 8 flickering figures, shrouded in black capes with red clouds. A thin blond perched on the lifeless Kazekage. Naruto’s heartbreaking whimper. A large scorpion like figure. Poison.. And puppets. She doesn’t shudder at the memory. More images, a redhead with heavy eyelids and the body of a child.. Sasori. She had been fighting Akasuna no Sasori. But she hadn’t been alone. No, she had been fighting with the short old lady with a sour scowl but a mischievous smile.. Lady Chio.

 

Lady Chio! She.. She was struck down.. Sakura could remember all the fear and anger swirling in her at the memory, yet strangely, at the same time, she couldn’t actually _feel_ the anger. There was something missing from the feeling. Something not quite right  within her. Her gut wasn’t clenching, her chest wasn’t tightening. Yes, she was angry, _furious_ in fact, but it was all in her head. The lack of feeling threw her off for a few seconds before a familiar voice screamed in her head. **SNAP OUT OF IT, BAKA! WE’VE GOT BIGGER FISH TO FRY!** Inner Sakura seemed to have woken from the dormant buzz she had faded into over the past couple of years. Sakura was glad. She had kind of missed her obnoxious alter-ego.

 

Finally she started to notice her surroundings. It was bright. Why was it so bright? Was she in Konoha? If she was with the Akatsuki, surely she would have woken up in some murky cave.. But this definitely wasn’t a room in the hospital. Overhead, the fluorescent lights were set into the low set ceiling. The walls were light grey and the room was completely empty save for the.. the bed? No, it was more like a table. A metal table the length of a bed set against the wall. Why was she sitting on a metal bed? She patted the surface and once again was overcome with the feeling of _nothing._ She just couldn’t feel the surface beneath her. She couldn’t feel the temperature, the texture, the pressure, _anything_. It was a frightening sensation, like she was suspended in air, and she could feel the panic in her mind but her complete lack of bodily response just disturbed her even more.

 

_I’m here all alone with no senses, no friends but also no guards. What does that mean?_

**DON’T BE STUPID. QUIT WONDERING AND START EXAMINING YOURSELF!**

_SHUT UP!_

Sakura hadn't even lifted her arm when the door on the opposite end of the room opened with a bang and there standing in the doorway stood a man with absolutely _gorgeous_ hair. Seriously, it was a pale blond and just looked so silky and luscious and… She was suddenly aware of the rest of his features. Cold blue eyes, playful smile and he was waving a hand with a _tongue_ in the middle of it. This was the man who sat on Gaara’s corpse and disrespected Suna’s great Kazekage and Naruto’s best friend with no remorse. The man who fought two jinchurikii and survived. Inner Sakura growled. Unbidden thoughts flashed through Sakura’s head. This was Deidara of the Stone. S-class missing nin. He had been fighting with Naruto and Kakashi-sensei. What did it mean that he was here, alive? Did that mean he had defeated Naruto and Kakashi-sensei? No way, no one could beat _Kakashi-sensei._

 

Still, he was here, he swaggered  into the room and came to a stop right in front of her before he stuck his stupid grinning face _right in front of hers_ and stared into her eyes for a few nerve racking seconds before backing off a bit. His actions felt familiar, they reminded her of a different blond with darker hair and warmer eyes. Sakura would have blinked, if she.. you know.. had the urge to.. which she didn’t. Another thought popped into her mind. _He’s part of Akatsuki which means.._ Her conclusion was interrupted by a loud, slightly obnoxious voice.

 

“I’m Deidara yeah, but you can call me Deidara-senpai!” he announced with a smirk.

 

This time Sakura did blink. Why the hell would she call him that? Automatically she opened her mouth to reply with her own name before she stopped herself. Instead she asked “Where is Naruto?”

Deidara scowled. The expression looked threatening on his hollow face.

“The Kyuubi jinchuuriki? His friend, the asshole with stupid hair cut off my arms yeah! AND almost killed me. I had to get Kakuzu to stitch my arms back on, the fucking prick didn’t even do it nice” he huffed.

“So they’re alive?” Sakura asked, not allowing herself to get her hopes up.

“Yeah, they ran away, the fucking cowards” Deidara spat out in disgust. Sakura would probably have sighed in relief but she still didn’t seem to need to breath.

“So where am I?” she asked more cautiously.

Deidara looked like he was about to answer but his attention was caught by a short figure, motionless in the doorway.

Sasori stood there with his red hair and heavy lidded eyes looking utterly devoid of emotion. His Akatsuki cloak was hanging off his bare shoulders and his various compartments for his heart and wire spools were very visible. He was staring straight at her with those freaky dead eyes of his. Sakura grimaced, did he have no shame?

“Deidara, leave” he instructed with no infliction.

“Bu-” Deidara caught himself mid whine when Sasori turned to glare at him with widened but still heavily lidded eyes. It was a.. disturbing look, to say the least.  Deidara stormed out the room pushing past Sasori who glared at him a second longer before turning back to Sakura, expressionless again.

 

“Haruno-san” he acknowledged before gliding into the room and- just like Deidara- getting right up into her personal space. Up until now Sakura had kept a pretty good hold on her rage but here, after having her personal space invaded by two different Akatsuki members in just a matter of seconds and with the return of a very angry inner Sakura, she finally snapped. Rage, fueled by Inner Sakura’s shouted encouragements _(_ **PUNCH HIM GOOD! SHANNARO!)** She reared her fist back and tried to infuse it with chakra but it wasn’t working. She didn’t hesitate though, she didn’t need chakra to throw a good punch. She couldn’t seem to tense her muscles though. Still, she could hardly pull back now. She threw her hand forward but it felt like flinging a wet noodle. Surprisingly she made contact with Sasori’s pale face and his head snapped back with a sickening crack. Sakura just stared in shock, she hadn’t expected her punch to do that much, if any damage. Maybe her muscles had been reinforced. Maybe her lack of feeling stopped her from holding back. She didn’t have long to feel surprised though, a second later Sasori’s neck straightened and his head slowly turned back to face forward. He didn’t seem to be bothered at all. _That’s right, he’s not human anymore, he’s just a puppet_.

 

**CREEPY ASSHOLE!!** inner Sakura yelled.

 

“Haruno-san” he said, his voice monotone. “Cooperate while I infuse your nerve endings or I’ll leave you like this”

 

Nerve endings? For the first time she glanced down at herself. She took in the plain white cotton dress, her smooth white skin, the joint between her hand and arm. The joint between her hand and arm. Oh kami, she had a JOINT between her hand and arm. A ball the same colour as her skin connecting her hand and arm where her wrist should be. She lifted her arms. Then scrambled to examine the rest of her body. Her skin was paper white everywhere. Her elbows, shoulders, knee caps, ankles, and knuckles were all replaced with smooth ball bearings. They looked similar to the joints on those slim plastic dolls that Ino always pointed at when they passed the shop. The dolls that seemed to be the new must-have among the civillian girls.. She poked her arm and was surprised to see the indentation indicating she still had flesh of some sort. Another thought startled her. She looked down at her chest, nothing looked different, there were still the slight lump of her chest area.

 

“Tch” Sasori sounded annoyed. She stared at him wildly, panic flooding her head. “I have preserved your body. Be grateful, brat. Leader-sama requested that I also preserve your mind. I’ve been told you won’t appreciate the lack of pain as much as I do so I will fix that if you desire. Decide, do not keep me waiting” he explained briefly. Sakura stared at him in shock. ‘ **NO  WAY** ’ yelled inner Sakura. _Shut up!_ she told the voice in her head. _Not possible, not possible, not possible. Why would he do that?_ Memories of her last moments flashed through her mind’s eye _, a puppet, tall and thin, with a face that may have been handsome when it was still a person, it’s red dead eyes framed by long lashes and it’s mouth fixed in a permanent grin/grimace. It had hundreds of thousands of little needles poking out from it’s whole body, purple poison dripping from the pointed ends. Sakura hadn’t even had time to blink.._

 

She was brought out of her flashback when Sasori tched before shoving her onto her back. She fell back with no complaints. Still shell shocked. She did know that she wanted her senses back even if she didn’t understand how it was even possible. He infused his finger tips with chakra and started poking her arm, until finally a few sensations flooded through it. The first one being extreme pain. She yelped and brought her hand to her chest defensively. Sasori just moved on to her torso, working through the thin cloth before going on to her neck, her legs. “Turn” he instructed. Sakura winced but did what she was told closing her eyes, trying to concentrate on the pain rather than the intrusive probing of Sasori’s hard fingers along her spine. Slowly he brought feeling back to her other limbs before leaving silently, the door shutting behind him with a click. Sakura lay there in immense pain, curled into a ball. Her skin felt like it was being hounded by the thousands of razor thin, red hot needles of the last puppet she has faced and she found she couldn't even release her pain into tears. She had no chakra, no escape plan, barely any consciousness. Her friends were probably all.. no, she wasn’t going to think about that... And she was still trying to process the fact that she was a _puppet._ No, not a puppet. Puppets were things to be controlled. She refused to allow that to happen. ( **HELL YEAH WE WON’T BE CONTROLLED!** screamed Inner Sakura) She was more like.. A doll. A doll with conscience. Oh kami, this was terrible.At least she had Inner Sakura to help her through this. Sakura winced as another wave of pain flowed through her leaving her skin all the way down to her fingertips numb. Daring escape plans were going to have to wait. Right now all she could do was lie perfectly still and let the pain wash over her...

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey.. So.. If you liked it please leave kudos! Also.. I'd kind of really appreciate it if you told me how my work reads.. Like if you can easily tell that this is written by a teenager then I need to know.. I really don't want to post low-quality work. Also, Sasori is damn hard to write. In fact, I probably completely butchered him.. Oh well..


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heh, I already finished this chapter so why not post it on the same day as the first? Also, this chapter starts out all serious and whatever but somewhere along the way I just gave up and decided to turn it into a snark-fest.

Sakura didn’t sleep, instead she lay there with her mind working furiously. She wondered if she would ever sleep again. Surely even if her modified body didn’t need rest, her brain would still require some down time.. She decided to add that to her mental list of questions she needed to ask Sasori. After asking what the hell she was even doing there, of course. The pain from regaining her sense of touch had finally receded leaving her cold and distressed in the small room. She had been lying there for what seemed like hours. That was pathetic. Naruto would have tried escaping by now. Shikamaru would have a whole strategy and plan set into motion.  Even Ino-pig wouldn’t just be laying around feeling sorry for herself. The thought jolted her out of her declination into self pity and she sat up and carefully lowered her bare feet to the ground.

****  


She stood up and was pleased when her legs took her weight easily. Her limbs moved fine, all disjointedness from before gone. Sakura walked to the door at the opposite end of her room, barely 4 steps away. Her bare feet made no sound against the hard concrete floor. She reached out to the door and and curled her fist around the doorknob. Marveling in fascination the way her new (metal?) joints moved smoothly. She wondered how it worked. She wondered if it was designed to make her more flexible than she had been before. She impulsively tried to bend back her pinky and watched in horrified fascination when the back of her nail touched the back of her hand. It was disgusting, sure, but it also raised a million more questions in her medical brain. She shook those thoughts off. I’m ridiculous. Most people would be gagging by now. I’m a freak, in both body and mind. The thought changed her mood from contemplative to somber. She turned the knob of the door in front of her and growled in frustration when she found it was locked from the outside.

****  


She tried to mold her chakra again but it still wasn’t working. The familiar rush of energy was completely absent and her fingertips weren’t glowing green. She wondered if it was because of her new joints. Maybe they didn’t conduct chakra? She’d just have to find out. She sat back down on her table, crossed her legs under her in a traditional meditating pose and closed her eyes. Normally the process required the slow relaxation of every muscle in her body, a near impossible feat for a shinobi, but this time it was easy. She simply dropped the tension in her body with just a thought. Of course she reflexively re-tensed a split second afterwards, alarmed. The sensation was going to take some time to get used to. This time she concentrated on relaxing one limb at a time. It was still ridiculously easy though a lot less alarming.

She reached deep into herself, concentrating on the beat of her heart. So she still had a blood circulatory system.. Interesting. Especially considering she had no need to breath. But the flow of chakra had always been intertwined closely with the flow of blood and both were codependent on each other. It was the first lesson she learned as a medic-nin. She let her mind follow the flow of her blood from her heart, down, down, down to where her chakra was molded. Normally when she reached here she would be greeted by the clear sight of the two energies, ying and yang slowly circling each other in perfect balance. Now she could still see it, but it was covered in a film of foreign chakra, stopping her own chakra from escaping and flowing through her pathways. But that was.. impossible, chakra was a necessity. Without it her body shouldn’t be able to function. Shinobi died from chakra exhaustion all the time. . She pulled her mind out of her body and opened her eyes again. Nothing for it, she was going to have to examine her body.

****  


To say that she was nervous would be an understatement. She was fucking terrified. She’d already seen her new joints but she really didn’t want to see what was under her clothes. What if Sasori had given her a stomach filled with coiled wire? What if she had a small poison machine in her? What if her digestive and/or reproduction system had been tinkered with? Ok, ok, I can do this, no big deal. It’ll be totally fine. Just lift the hem of my dress, pull it up. Up, up, up, over my head. There, it’s off. I should probably open my eyes now.

****  


She opened her eyes. And heaved a huge sigh of relief when she saw her body looked just as it had before. At least it did on first glance. She realised she had a band made from the same material as her joints filling in the space above her hips. She pressed at her stomach and instead of the giving firmness that she normally felt, it was rock hard. Harder than Naruto's stomach even. That shouldn't have pleased her as much as it did..  

****  


The door creaked open and Sasori shuffled in, his face as blank as ever. Sakura scowled and pulled down her shift to beneath her knees. Then she sat on her bed and leaned back against the wall, all the while watching Sasori with weary eyes. Sasori opened his hinged mouth, then closed it again. **FUCK THIS. PUNCH HIM AND ESCAPE!!** Sakura ignored Inner Sakura's advice.

****  


“Sakura-san” intoned Sasori. “I am here to answer your no doubt plentiful questions that you have. Then I will take you to Leader-sama” he stopped and looked expectantly at Sakura.

****  


Sakura took a second to organise her thoughts before she started firing off.

****  


“What have you done to my chakra?” she asked without hesitation. Inner Sakura nodded in approval.

“I have blocked it” Sasori dead panned. Sakura gritted her teeth.

“But that's impossible!” she half shouted.

Sasori just frowned a little at the raise in volume. “You are no longer completely human” he said.

“What do you mean?” demanded Sakura, her heart rate wasn’t increasing but she could feel Inner Sakura’s ‘breathing’ getting heavier.

“You have flesh and blood, but you no longer have your natural muscles or skin”

_Goddammit, why does this creep not have any facial expressions?_

**BECAUSE HE’S A CREEP. DUH! NOW STOP GETTING DISTRACTED BY IT AND ASK HIM SOMETHING IMPORTANT!**

_Right.._

“So..?” Sakura trailed off.

Sasori’s face finally twitched into something with expression. Of course that expression had to be scorn. “Your new muscles include the heart. Your new heart can pump blood around your body without the assistance of chakra. Do you wish for me to break it down for you further?”

**COCKY BASTARD. I’LL SHOW _HIM_ HOW TO BREAK THINGS DOWN..**

_Yeah, yeah, I’m still stuck on the fact that he shaped me a new heart.._

__

“So- uh..” Sakura said a little distractedly. Her mind was racing, trying to come up with conclusions. “When do I get my chakra back?”

“When Leader-sama decides” came Sasori’s infuriating reply.

**WHEN LEADER-SAMA DECIDES? WHEN _LEADER SAMA DECIDES??!!_**

_Oh god.. Please shut up for a second._

__

“What does he want from me?”

“He will tell you”

**YEAH. NO SHIT.**

“Fine, take me to him” Sakura lifted her chin and tried to make herself sound as haugty and inconvenienced as possible. She heard a snort come from the doorway and she glanced up, surprised, to meet Deidara’s pale blue eye.

“That tone really fucking suits you, yeah? Like the queen of fucking Babylon.” he drawled.

Sakura just looked away from him as dismissively as she could manage.

“Well?” she asked Sasori, not missing the way Deidara’s eye narrowed in displeasure. _Whatever, he’s a dick who killed Gaara. Of course- Gaara himself probably killed lots of people as well.._

__

“Come, then” replied Sasori, turning around and walking out of the room, brushing past Deidara.

Sakura stood up. Deidara snorted again. “Sure you don’t want to change, princess?”

_WHAT THE-_

**I’LL FUCKING SHOW HIM!! THAT ANDROGYNOUS GIRLY BLONDE HAIRED IDIOT THINKS _WE’RE_ THE PRINCESS IN THIS ROOM?**

Sakura’s anger was quickly overridden by Inner Sakura’s absolute fury. She snorted a little at Inner’s implication. _He probably spends more time combing his hair than I do on mine.._ she supplied for Inner Sakura. Then she realised she had snorted out loud and probably made Deidara think that she’s slightly mental.

Instead Deidara just looked slightly impressed.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah.. So I could probably write a smoother conversation.. Maybe I'll edit it later.. Probably not. Also, I don't have a beta seeing as I don't have any friends who watch Naruto.. So, uh, are there any volunteers?


	3. Recruitment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't even have an excuse.. Uh.. This chapter is ridiculously late because of my... age. Yep. 15 year olds are unreliable.. And awkward.. And terrible at notes..
> 
> There may be some Konan/Sakura vibes in this chapter but since there's at least a 30-year age gap between them, that ship will not be sailing.. At least not in a canon fic anyway.. ;)

Sakura wished she was an Uchiha, and not for the reason you may think. An unflappable poker face, a haughty snobbish demeanor and a deep rooted confidence of herself would have _really_ come in handy right then. Right then being the second she found herself face-to-face (or face-to-chest anyway) with a huge fucking _blue_ man. The man.. Was blue. A blue man. Sure, she had pink hair and was now part-puppet. Sure, her shishou had impossibly huge breasts and her sensei had a magical implanted eye. Sure , her teammate had a huge fox demon living in him and her other (ex)teammate had a seal that could help him grow wings and an extra arm and some other crazy shit. Sure, pretty much everyone she knew had some weird ninja voodoo happening to their body. But she had never _ever_ met someone with blue skin.

 

“You’re… blue..” she muttered

He grinned, his teeth were sharpened to points but Sakura was used to that.

_Huh.. Mist-nin_

"uh.. Hi?"

The huge blue mist-nin didn’t seem to get the urge to do anything but grin at her eerily. _Okaaay..._

“Hurry the fuck up, yeah!” Deidara’s loud voice floated down the hall. Sakura dragged her eyes away from the Blue Dude and carried on down the hall, the long ends of Deidara’s pajama pants dragging across the floor. When he had offered to lend her some clothes, she hadn’t expected to find herself in a matching pajama set with tiny bombs and BOOMs printed onto the soft fabric.

_I guess I’m about to meet the leader of the Akatsuki in an oversized set of pajamas, there goes all my dignity.._

 

She walked into a metal room, around the same size as Tsunade-sama's office. There was a balcony with the door left open and she could see that it was drizzling unpleasantly outside. There was a man with honest-to-god _orange_ hair (Naruto would be so jealous) and more piercings visible than skin, sitting behind the only desk in the room.

 

The man looked up and Sakura gasped and quickly averted her eyes when she caught sight of the purple rings that took place of his eyes. Yeah, she was used to freaky pupil-less eyes from Ino-pig and Hina-chan, but this was something completely different. Power seemed to radiate from those purple-ringed eyeballs. Just that one quick glance had made Sakura feel queasy and it seemed that Inner Sakura was on the same page as her.

**_WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT??_ **

_Beats me.._

 

Sakura was so resolved on staring at the floor that she didn’t even notice when a new person entered the room through the balcony.

“Pein” went a serene voice, and Sakura looked up, startled. “Ah, the new recruit is awake..” Sakura didn’t even register the lady’s words.. The lady’s voice was like no voice she had ever heard before. It was calm and collected, low and husky but still distinguishably feminine. It sounded.. Reassuring somehow.

 

And the lady herself.. She was a sight to behold. Her hair was a pale shade of blue, almost the exact parallel to Sakura’s shade of pink. Her eyes were a cold amber, a much more pleasing tone than the orange-haired man’s hair, and she had a piercing in her lower lip that was much prettier than the sticks of carbon that seemed to be inserted into every patch of skin visible on the orange-haired man's body.

**_WOAH_ **

_Yeah.. Woah_.

Sakura had met very few foreign kunoichi. There had been Temari.. and Lady Chio, but that was it, and although they were both powerful and successful kunoichi, neither of them had carried about this aura, of-of god-like ness about them. Sakura dared to glance at the Orange man standing next to the lady and realised that he carried the same sort of grace as well. They looked serene, other worldly, god-like, and Sakura had to bite down on her urge to bow down low.   

**_FUCK BOWING! THE LADY JUST CALLED YOU ‘THE NEW RECRUIT’. FIND OUT WHAT THE FUCK SHE MEANS!_ **

_She called me WHAT?_

**_EXACTLY.._ **

 

“New.. New recruit?” Sakura managed to mumble out.

“Sakura-san, did you say something?” the Orange guy asked.

“I-I” Fuck, she was completely speechless in front of these guys. How embarrassing!

_I’m a kunoichi of Konoha, apprentice to the great lady Tsunade, a medical nin of the highest caliber, the possessor of strength that most shinobi only get to dream about. I will NOT cower before these people._

**_THAT WAS CHEESY.. BUT YEAH! DAMN FUCKING STRAIGHT!_ **

 

Sakura brought her gaze up and met the lady’s neutral stare. Her amber eyes looked like they had been warm once, they seemed like the kind of eyes that belonged on a lively spirit, but the rest of her demeanor put a damper on it and now her gaze seemed sharp and removed and just slightly condescending.

 

Sakura tried to think of an eloquent way to put her next question.

 

“What do you want from me?” she demanded, then winced. There was a reason why Lady Tsunade hadn’t considered her for taking the Hokage seat and that reason _wasn’t_ Naruto.

The answer that came was from the orange haired man, his voice was deep and slow, seeming to resonate around the room like an echo.

“We are in need of a shinobi with your specific skill sets to take a place as a member of the Akatsuki”

_Well fuck.._

There really wasn’t any polite way of declining so Sakura resigned herself to spitting out her one-worded answer, then dying a painful death.

“No”

Behind her, Deidara snorted. Sakura reigned in her flinch. She was already developing a nervous twitch just from the sound of his obnoxious voice.

 

“You really don’t have any choice yeah? Whatever the case, you’re joining us as our new medic-nin..”

 

Sakura whirled around, her mouth open and her indignant words ready to spill over. Fortunately (for Deidara), she was interrupted by the blue-haired lady’s smooth voice.

 

“Haruno-san. Deidara is correct. You have little choice in this matter. Sasori has already made many irreversible changes on your body. Without his guidance, your imminent survival is unlikely. You have no reason to decline. We are offering you a place among many s-class shinobi. Staying with us will ensure that you become powerful beyond the typical kunoichi”

 

_But I’m already powerful beyond the ‘typical kunoichi’! Plus.. Their kind of power is a little, well very.. Unethical.._

**_*SNORT* DON’T BE STUPID. YOU’RE A SHINOBI! ETHICAL ISN’T PART OF YOUR VOCABULARY!_ **

**_STILL. JOINING THE AKATSUKI IS NOT IN OUR BEST INTERESTS.._ **

_Well.. It probably is if I can somehow manage to pull off being a double agent._

**_FUCK NO! THAT’S FUCKING CRAZY TALK. WE ARE NOT RISKING OUR LIFE IN SUCH A CARELESS WAY.._ **

_Then our only choice is try to escape a group of ten of the most powerful shinobi in the world.._

**_OR JOIN THEM FOR REAL.._ **

 

Sakura found herself reigning in another twitch when the voice behind her exclaimed loudly, “Just join us yeah! There’s great pay and Tobi’s annoying as fuck but a damn good cook..”

 

**_ON SECOND THOUGHTS. LET’S ESCAPE. THIS GUY IS MORE ANNOYING THAN NARUTO.. I NEVER THOUGHT THAT POSSIBLE.._ **

 

Speaking of Naruto..

“You.. You can’t be serious! You want me to join the group that is hunting down jinchuuriki! My best friend is a jinchuuriki! Of course I’ll never join you!” Sakura’s incredulity was genuine. She was beyond confused. Konohan loyalty was well-known for being unbreakable. There must be some other factor that Sakura couldn’t see.

 

There was a moment of silence that even Deidara didn’t seem willing to break, then the orange man spoke up in his grave voice.

“I had hoped it wouldn’t come to this,”

_Shit Shit Shit_

“Come to what?” Sakura asked even though she had a feeling she already knew..

“This” Sakura felt a palm around her jaw, pulling her head up. Her first instinct was to bring all her chakra into her right fist and blast whoever was touching her into the wall. But just as she remembered that she couldn’t use her chakra, her gaze met her attacker’s and then she was falling.

Down down down into those inky purple depths.

 

When she came to, she was still standing up. And she was very confused. The three other people in the room were staring at her expectantly. The three other people.. Konan-sama, Pein-sama and Deidara-san. Her.. partners. Right? And she was.. In Pein-sama’s office? Why? That’d never happened before..

 

 _What happened?_ she asked to herself. It seemed natural that she would only voice this question inside her head, as if an answer from someone else would come immediately. She knew where she was, she knew who these people were, but she had no idea how she knew. She could think of no one else she knew.. She didn’t know much about herself either.. Her history, her parents, her whole life.. All she knew was what she was. A kunoichi, a medic-nin, a part-puppet, an apprentice. But an apprentice to who? She had no idea..

 

There was a stirring inside her head and then her hands were on her ears, her eyes screwed shut as a loud, screeching voice resonated around her head.

 

_**WHAT THE FUCK!! WHAT THE FUUUCCKK!! THAT FUCKING HURT! YOU PURPLE EYED PIECE OF SHIT WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU DO TO US. GET OUT GET OUT! FUCK FUCK FUCK..** _

 

and then a lot quieter but still shrill.

__

_**SAKURA? ARE YOU THERE?** _

_Er.. Yes? Um.. Who are you?_

 

“Sakura-san” a serene voice went. _Konan-sama_ Sakura’s brain identified. “Are you ok?”

“Yeah! Do you know who we are yet! Are you going to join us now?? Shit, do you remember who you are!? Oh fuck! She doesn’t remember who she is yeah!”

 

“Shut. Up” she grit out. Her head felt like it was going to explode. The voice screaming in her thoughts wasn’t really helping with matters.

 

_**FUCK. THERE’S A HUGE FUCKING BLOCK HERE!! AND.. AND A NUMBER OF NEW MEMORIES. WHAT THE FUCK!! THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE. A JOB THIS DELICATE, AND THIS SPECIFIC. KAMI-DAMMIT WE’RE SCREWED!** _

__

_WHO THE FUCK IS WE??!_ Sakura screamed back.

_**SHUT UP BITCH, I’M BUSY!** _

…

 

“Uh, Sakura-san? You’re still sane yeah? If you’re not I might cry.. Tobi is more than enough lunacy than I can fucking deal with yeah..”

 

As confused and disorientated as she was, the irony was not lost on Sakura. Konan-sama let out a lady-like snort and Sakura gritted her teeth. All she wanted was to lie down on a soft bed and crash for a few hours. Except.. For some reason she wasn’t really sure if sleeping was an option for her. Dammit, that made absolutely no sense.. What the fuck had happened to her?  

 

“Um.. Konan-sama?” Sakura’s voice was small. She cleared her throat.

“Can I.. uh, that is, am I able to sleep?”

 

Sakura flushed furiously when she met Konan-sama’s cool gaze. Konan-sama’s reply had her flushing even harder.

“That is a matter for another time. Presently, it is vital that we know, what do you remember?”

 

_What do I remember?? Nothing really.._

“I- I.. I’m not quite sure..”

 

*Meanwhile in Inner Sakura land*

 

SHIT SHIT SHIT. WHAT DO I TELL SAKURA TO SAY? SHE DEFINITELY CAN’T TELL THEM ABOUT ME, THAT’S FOR SURE! BUT WE NEED TO BE PUT IN A LOW SECURITY LOCATION SO THAT WE CAN ESCAPE QUICKLY! THIS BLOCK IN HER MIND.. I MAY BE ABLE TO UNDO IT, BUT IT’LL TAKE TIME. FOR NOW, WE NEED TO GET BACK TO KONOHA! IT’S NOT SAFE HERE..

 

ALRIGHT. UH.. HERE GOES..

 

_**SAKURA?** _

_Yes? Who are you??_

_**ERR.. INNER SAKURA. YOU CAN CALL ME.. INNER? ANYWAY. YOU NEED TO TELL THEM THAT.. THAT YOU REMEMBER.. UHH..** _

 

Inner Sakura flipped through the new memories that had been planted into Sakura’s brain. Right..

****

**_YOU NEED TO TELL THEM THAT YOU REMEMBER ESCAPING KONOHA AND THEN PASSING OUT ON YOUR JOURNEY TO SUNA. SASORI-SAN FOUND YOU AND SAVED YOUR LIFE. WITH A COST. SOUND CONFUSED ABOUT THE DETAILS. YOU ARE NOW PART PUPPET?_ **

 

_Why should I listen to you?_

_**BECAUSE I DIDN’T JUST BRAINWASH YOU.. AND I’VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE FOR YOU! AND I HAVE ALL YOUR MEMORIES UP HERE WITH ME. GIVE ME SOME TIME AND I CAN UNDO THE BLOCK..** _

_BLOCK??_

**_LONG STORY.. WHATEVER. JUST FOLLOW MY ADVICE. OR YOU’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO GET YOUR MEMORIES BACK!_ **

_Well.. It’s not like I have a better reply.._

 

“Um.. I remember.. I was in.. Konoha? Then.. I escaped but I was injured. And Sasori-san found me and saved me? Somehow? There was a lot of damage right?”

 

Sakura was surprised that no one called her out on her terrible acting.. Not even Inner Sakura..

 

“Yeah! Lots of damage! Enough that Sasori-danna had to completely modify your body yeah! And.. Uh.. You actually can’t really ‘sleep’.. yeah, but you probably will pass out sometimes.. Sasori-danna said something about your brain activity being unusual? I dunno, you have to go ask him yeah..”

 

 _Holy.._ How many ‘yeahs’ could this guy fit into a sentence? Sakura didn’t think she had ever met anyone as loud and obnoxious as this guy. Of course.. She couldn’t be sure. She felt a twinge at the back of her mind but it was quickly muted.

 

‘Deidara, take Sakura-san to her new quarters. Konan-sama and I have tasks elsewhere. Then find Sasori and request that he explains to Sakura-san on her condition and that he writes up a full report to be handed in to me.”

 

“Yeah, yeah, come on Sakura-san! Or can I call you Sakura-chan..”

 

“Deidara-san. Please shut up. And no, I may have to stab you if you dare add -chan to the end of my name again” Sakura replied tiredly. She felt drained and confused and more than a little off-kilter. Her limbs felt strange, heavy and dull, she was acutely aware of the lack of chakra running through her body and her helplessness. She was missing a good chunk of her memories and she seemed to have a shrill lunatic living in her head. And apparently, she wasn’t even able to sleep it off!

 

As she followed Deidara down the narrow hallway, she found herself being glad of her inability to tremble, or cry. There was so much she didn't know.. She wasn't even sure if she was safe in this place. Were these people really her friends? And where were all her memories? She didn't have a clue..

 

_How did I even end up in this situation?_

**_LIKE I SAID.. LONG STORY. I’LL TELL IT TO YOU LATER.._ **

_That was actually a rhetorical question to myself.._

**_OH._ **

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a very easy and cliche' story line planned out for this thing. You know.. Sakura grows fond of these people, grows comfortable in her body, eventually ends up in a huge fight against some Konoha people and is slam dunked with all her memories.. And then she needs to make a decision.. Yep, that's it people, I'm spoiling it early on so that y'all know what kind of story this is... Not too much confusion or angst since she has Inner Sakura to guide her through.. Like she has her memories, but only through second hand so her emotional attachment is non-existant which makes it more plausible for her to consider joining the Akatsuki..


End file.
